Railway car springs



Oct. 20, 1953 L. E. ENDSLEY RAILWAY CAR SPRINGS F iled Aug. 2, 1951 INVENTOR Louis E; ENDSLE 72 Ale 7 BYZ a JJz s I q 7 4 il r Patented Oct. 20, 1953 RAILWAY CAR- SPRINGS Louis E. Endsley, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to The Frost Railway Supply 00., Detroit, Mich, a

corporation of Michigan Application August 2, 1951, Serial N 0. 239,909

2 Claims.

My invention relates to railway car springs such as are employed for supporting the ends of truck bolsters within the car truck side frames, and more particularly to those springs of the spring-group type wherein each group comprises a plurality of coil springs for supporting the truck bolster, each spring group being assembled as a unit and having a frictional snubbing devic incorporated therewith to prevent excessive oscillations or vibratory movements.

One object of my invention is to provide a friction spring structure of the character referred to, wherein a wedging device is employed for maintaining snubbing springs under pressure, to produce the required friction, with provision for changing the position of the wedge in order to take up or compensate for wear, whereby desired degree of friction can be maintained during wear, and thus increasing the life of the snubbing device.

Another object of my invention is to provide a wedging device of spring steel, for supplementing the snubbing springs.

Still another object of my invention is to provide an improved manner of maintaining the parts of the group spring unit in assembled relation during handling and the installation thereof in a car truck.

As shown in the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a sectional view through a group spring structure, taken on the line 1-1 of Fig. 3; Fig. 2 is a side elevational view thereof, and Fig. 3 is a plan view.

The unit shown in the drawing is similar to that described in Harry W. Frost, Jr., and Louis E. Endsley application Serial No. 151,088, filed March 22, 1950 (Patent No. 2,571,229), the principal distinction in the present case being that provision is made for adjusting the spring seats in the inner ends of the snubbing springs to compensate for wear of the friction elements at the outer ends of the springs.

The unit, of which there will be two in each truck, comprises a bottom spring seating plate 5 having a casing comprising upstandin walls 6 and I. An upper cap plate or follower 8 has depending side walls 9 at two of its opposite sides and depending side walls In at its other two opposite sides. The side walls 9 have openings through which friction shoes ll extend for frictional engagement with liner plates l2 that are secured to the side walls 6, the plates l2 being desirable in that they take the frictional wear of the shoes I I.

The usual load-carrying springs l4 are inter- 2 posed between the top plate 8 and the bottom plate 5.

The top follower serves as a spring housing and has webs or partitions [5 formed therein provided with holes through which the inner ends of snubbing springs l6 extend for engagement with the sides of a spring steel wedge l'l bent so that its lower edges abut each other and which is held down either directly by a bolster I8 or by the bolster operating through shims or filler plates 19. Initially, the upper end of the wedge ll will be directly engaged by the bolster l8, but as wear occurs at the frictional surfaces 11-42, or the snubbing springs become weakened, the bolster will be raised somewhat to permit the insertion of filler plates or shims Hi, to hold the wedge H at a somewhat lower position, with consequent increase in spring pressure. This adjustment can be accomplished without disassembling the unit or removing it from the car.

The opposed walls 1 of the casing have holes 2| therethrough and the opposed walls I0 of the cap 8 have elongated holes or slots 22 therethrough, while the wedge ll, being of folded form, has space between the legs.

When the parts are assembled as shown in Fig. 1, previous to installation of the unit in a truck frame, the plate 8 is compressed against the springs I4 to bring its slots 22 into alignment with the holes 21 to thereby permit insertion of a temporary holding bar or pin 24 through said holes and through the slot 23, as well as between the legs of the wedge. This permits of handling the unit without the parts becoming scattered and also facilitates installation in the car truck. When the unit is installed and the weight of the bolster I8 imposed thereon, the pin 22 can be withdrawn.

There is clearance at 23 to insure leeway for adjustability of the wedge when compressing the springs. The wedge itself is made of tempered sprin steel and thus supplements the snubbing springs in the exertion of pressure on the shoes.

I claim as my invention:

1. A spring group comprising top and bottom spring plates having load-carrying coils between them, an upwardly-extending casing on the bottom plate, downwardly-extending spring housings carried by the top plate and extending into the casing, friction surfaces on oppositely-disposed walls of the casing, friction shoes extending slidably through oppositely-located walls of the housings and having engagement with said surfaces, a pair of coil snubbing springs, partition walls in the housings, having openings to,

loosely receive the inner ends of the pair of snubbing springs whose outer ends respectively seat against said shoes, and a wedge-shaped spring seating block removably inserted between said partitions and engaging th inner ends of the snubbing springs to compress them against the shoes, there being a depression in the upper face of the top plate, symmetrically-disposed with respect to the vertical axis of the spring group, the depression extending substantial distances beyond the opposite vertical side faces of the wedge, and a filler plate on top of the Wedge in: position to serve as a seat for a bolster, and being movable vertically in the depression, conjunction with vertical movements of" the wedge; whereby the wedge can be moved down to variou vertical positions, through Weights imposed onthe filler plate.

2. A spring group as recited in claim 1, wherein a releasable holding device is provided for temporarily holding the wedge in position between the snubbing springs to facilitate placing of the filler plate on the wedge.

LOUIS E. ENDSLEY.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,141,767 Camp Dec. 27, 1938 2,401,905 Bureau June 11, 1946 2,483,172. Bachman Sept. 27, 1949 2, 83, 81 Clasen Sept. 27, 1949 2,515,853 Blattner July 18, 1950 2,516,072 Piron July 18, 1950 2,571,229 Frost et a1 Oct. 16, 1951 2,596,282 Olander May 13, 1952 

